Noob question about printing...

Rooster

Rooster

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John
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Ok, I've just started actually selling some photos to friends and colleagues, which I am chuffed about. I get them printed at my local Costco photo lab in various sizes and I'm happy with them, despite being a bit dark at times which I now compensate for by lightening up pics to print.

However a friend of mine says that using an Epson printer at home with Epson inks and fine art paper gives a much better result. Is this true? I never thought a home printer could equal Costco's huge machine, although they are suspiciously cheap. Are there firms which do such prints and can anyone recommend one so I can compare?
 
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I usually send mine off to Aldi as they are cheap and have had good results. I've never had that great results with home printing. I guess if you get a good enough printer then you might.
 
If you are happy with the Costco prints then I'd stick with it.

Can a home inkjet equal the machines at Costco? The answer is yes. The difference is primarily speed. The Costco machines are designed to produce volume, a home printer doesn't. Also the technology is different, Laser exposure onto photographic paper, then wet processed, compared to ink on paper. Also there is a cost difference Inkjet paper and ink tends to be more expensive per print then photographic media
 
depends on the printer and the paper - it is however significantly more expensive.

stick with what you are doing IMHO

Rooster said:
However a friend of mine says that using an Epson printer at home with Epson inks and fine art paper gives a much better result. Is this true? I never thought a home printer could equal Costco's huge machine, although they are suspiciously cheap. Are there firms which do such prints and can anyone recommend one so I can compare?
Click to expand...
 
Well, I was sort of happy with the Costco prints but there were some problems with colour and being too dark which I now compensate for. However if I'm going to be selling prints I want them to be top notch, especially big poster and panoramic prints which I'm now doing. As it is the printing costs are negligible compared to mounting and framing. I need to try the fine art prints before deciding if they're worth it. an anyone recommend a resonably-proced online lab for this please?
 
If you are going down this route I would suggest that you consider getting your monitor screen correctly calibrated first. This way you will know that what you send is what you get,

As for Labs are concerned try Photech in Warrington

http://www.photech.co.uk/

Or as you are in Newcastle try Colorworld Imaging

http://www.colorworldimaging.co.uk/
 
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Chappers said:
If you are going down this route I would suggest that you consider getting your monitor screen correctly calibrated first. This way you will know that what you send is what you get,

As for Labs are concerned try Photech in Warrington

http://www.photech.co.uk/

Or as you are in Newcastle try Colorworld Imaging

http://www.colorworldimaging.co.uk/
Click to expand...

Can you advise on the best software to calibrate PC screens ?, I hadn't thought of that, but even if my screen is slightly out, the paper results could be off.
 
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